Roots fans it’s game day! The (somehow) 7th ranked Roots travel to Colorado Springs, the second largest city in the Front Range Urban Corridor, to face 9th ranked Switchbacks at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. The match will be available on ESPN+ and KTVU Plus, and the official watch party will be at the Good Hop in Uptown.
Colorado Springs
Roots faced Switchbacks just five weeks ago, check out my match preview from that match so you can see what I had to say about the Switchbacks then, and see my celebration of the striker we had just signed. I wonder what happened to that guy. Roots’ insta posts from their travel on Friday do not show Dwyer with the team.
Colorado Springs came to Oakland fresh off of a draw, which was their only non-loss through their first six matches. They beat the Roots 2-0 in a performance so disappointing the Roots canned Delgado the next day.
The match was even through 70 minutes, with the Roots getting some looks in on goal. In the 70th, Switchbacks pulled ahead when Logue got beat to the goal line on the defensive left side of the box, and Maalique Foster managed to slip his pass in front of Blanchette for Juan Tejada to tap in. Tejada had worked his way onto the wrong side of Alexeev coming from the back post. Logue should not have lost his man, but the Roots got maximally punished for a relatively small mistake. Roots came close to equalizing less than two minutes later, but could not quite capitalize. Switchbacks sealed the match in the 82nd by creating a break when Roots pushed forward to try to win possession. The defense recovered, but Foster again put a great ball into the box to find Adrian Rocha in the second wave of Switchbacks runners and Rocha passed the ball behind Paul who had tracked the first wave of runners.
That match was back-breaking, and cost Delgado his job. Given Glinton’s performances since then, including in the losses, moving on from Delgado was probably the right choice. However, it is now clear that CS’s 0-1-5 start to the season was an aberration. That win in Hayward was the start of a four-match league1 winning streak for Switchbacks. Switchbacks most recent match was more than two weeks ago, winning 3-1 at home over Rhode Island F.C.
Rhode Island took the lead on a firm header by Frank Nodarse who just found a hole right in front of the goal in Switchbacks’ corner kick defense. Ronaldo Damus equalized in the 27th on a screaming goal that beat Koke Vegas at his near post top corner. Switchbacks took the lead in the 64th on an own goal that they forced, to an extent, with an excellent sharp cross into the box that Koke Vegas couldn’t control when he dove for it. Damus padded his stats with an 87th minute penalty and the match was done.
So Switchbacks enter on a four-match winning streak, but all four victories over teams that the current Roots are probably better than: the Delgado Roots, El Paso (2-2-8), Hartford (4-0-6), and Rhode Island (1-7-3). That run of form has been lead by Ronaldo Damus, who has five goals in his last three league games, three of them penalties.
Roots’ Form
I was thinking about this while I was listening to RootsPod this week, and the Roots’ form under Gavin Glinton isn’t just better than it was under Delgado, but is actually pretty reasonable? In the Glinton era, the Roots have a draw away to San Antonio, a loss away to an MLS team (in which the Roots looked equal or better for half the game), a loss away to New Mexico (who are first in the West, with losses only away to elite eastern conference teams), and then two wins. Neither of Roots’ wins was particularly showy, but they were definitely progress.
It’s easy to forget that FC Tulsa is a six-pointer, since they are new to the Western Conference. The only goal came in the 20th minute when Trayvone Reid made a burning run down the left flank (some Tulsa fans are arguing he stepped out but it doesn’t really look like it on the tv broadcast), squared up, and put a great ball into Njie at the top of the 18-yard box. Njie’s shot went straight into a defender who had peeled off of Chery to try to close down Njie. The shot bounced up favorably for Chery who spun and hammered it in on the volley. The Roots had some more decent chances, but as the second half wore on it increasingly became a rear-guard action, with Paul seriously tested a couple times.
Tulsa fans complained after the match that the Roots started wasting time immediately after Chery’s goal and they are exactly right and I am so proud of the boys for that. Roots needed 3 points and they needed a clean sheet and they got both. The referee also gave like 10 minutes of stoppage time, and waved off two penalties, so cry more imho.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
On the road against an improving offense, I might run drop Njie for Diaz, who I think is a better defender. So that might look more like a 4-4-2.
I am not sure the Roots have exactly stabilized yet, but they are stabilizing. I think the ingredients are there for strong defensive performances, but on the road in Colorado may be a hard place to get a clean sheet. I also think that the offense struggles to create and finish quality chances. 1-1, which I think is a reasonable result on the road against another mid-table team.
Jon
Jon was “too busy” to write his own prediction because he’s busy “helping the community and the environment” at the Coli Clean Up. What a jerk.
Jon predicted 3-1 on the pod this week, and says he doesn’t think that Dwyer plays.
Aaron
All defenders, all the time.2 First off the bench should probably be Camier for one of the lads up top. Make Switchbacks attackers wonder why they decided to suit up on the day. And score just the stupidest, ugliest goal you’ve seen to take the points. 1-0 Roots.